Author Archives: James

In 2015, I hired an editor to draw up an outline for my adventure to locate the lost gold bars of Camp McKinney. Several years later a ‘blue pencil’ consultation through the Vancouver Public Library added more direction to my … Continue reading →

Although the quartz sample shown is from Sonoma, California, it shows what hard rock miners were searching for. The quartz samples I have seen from Camp McKinney vary from this specimen. As the Cariboo-Amelia workings went deeper, the quartz vein … Continue reading →

Trail portion between Hope and Princeton, just off Highway 3. Built by the Royal Engineers, this portion had been widened for wagons.

My apologies for the long delay in posting. I have been working diligently, for a seventy-year-old, on the story with a plan to self-publish a memoir. The book will be saturated with photos of my ten-year adventure being part treasure … Continue reading →

More than two million acres burned in the summer heat and drought. I kept watch on the BC wildfire map and appreciated that my ten year search area remained untouched. In late September, I rented a large SUV and smiled … Continue reading →

The age of the internet has given so many ways of learning the smallest details that add to a story. Newspapers from New York City, of which there are a few, Deadwood in South Dakota, and Seattle have helped me … Continue reading →

The engine shown is very similar to the sixty horsepower Corliss that ran the machinery at Camp McKinney. The engine and equipment were brought in from the defunct Rainbow Mine at Wannacut Lake in Washingron State. The equipment was fully … Continue reading →

When a story such as one about the lost gold bars of Camp McKinney lives on and gets retold, so do the errors. Many writers have enjoyed retelling how James Monaghan cleverly forgot to sign his cheque written for import … Continue reading →

There is something about the red star that concerns me. Over the last century it has come to represent a communist regime. Perhaps a gold star or simple X would be more appropriate in a country where freedom reigns and … Continue reading →